EVALUATION OF AN RC FRAME BUILDING EXPOSED TO DIFFERENTIAL SETTLEMENT IN PADANG CITY, INDONESIA

Abstract

Buildings are essential infrastructures in everyday life, so their structure must be carefully planned to reduce the potential for damage. One of the damages that can occur to buildings is differential settlement, as in the case of a Reinforced Concrete (RC) frame building exposed to differential settlement in an office building in Padang City, West Sumatra, Indonesia. The building was built in 2011 using the old Indonesian seismic building code. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a building structure assessment to determine its feasibility and safety based on current Indonesian building standards. The building structure assessment involves the evaluation of the existing building, analysis of the geometry of the building, and structural analysis of the existing building using the finite element method (ETABS v21) computer program. The results of the study show that the building's differential settlement is 1.85%, exceeding the allowable limit of 1/300. The load effect due to differential settlement results in an increase in internal forces in the beam, such as moment and shear capacity of around 16%, while the internal forces in the column experience a decrease in the maximum axial force of 89%. Due to the additional load of the differential settlement, almost all capacity of existing structural elements, such as columns and beams, is reduced so that they do not meet current building codes. Consequently, it is recommended that the building not be used or repurposed for other activities and that it be demolished instead.